Spare tire handling devices with one-piece wheel retainers for vehicles are well known in the prior art, and they are widely used because of their simple design. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,600,352; 4,693,453; 5,060,912; 5,297,913; 6,092,790; 6,267,546; and 6,427,981. When a user uses such one-piece wheel retainer with a winch and cable, the user is required to maneuver the retainer with it attached to the cable at an angle through a central hole in the tire rim to engage the under side surface of the rim prior to the tire being moved from the accessible position to a stored position.
This arrangement has not been found to be satisfactory in all cases as the user must manipulate the wheel retainer under all climatic conditions, in traffic and must exercise care to attach and store the correct size spare tire in the vehicle in event that the spare tire is required to replace a damaged running tire at a later time. Additionally, the user must place the tire with the “beauty side” surface oriented properly with respect to the vehicle prior to being moved to the stored position by the tire carrier so as store the tire properly in the allocated space in the vehicle. None of the prior art designs solve these problems.
One attempt to solve this problem is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,390,864 to E. L. Searcy et al. Searcy discloses a spare tire handling device with a retractable wheel retainer with a gripping mechanism that utilizes pivotally mounted arms with notches that engage the edge of the tire rim about the wheel opening. The notches in the arms are maintained in contact with the tire rim by action of coil springs acting between a housing and the arms to urge the arms away from the housing. This arrangement is not satisfactory as the coil springs can fail, disengage or become inoperative and thus permitting the arms to disengage from the tire rim that can result in the loss of the spare tire. This prior art design does not disclose or suggest the present invention.